Following the dramatic 11^th round stoppage of the 41-year-old Ukrainian legend, a fellow former Olympic super-heavyweight champion, Joshua insisted that his victory did not match the high of winning Olympic gold at London 2012.

“Winning the world titles and defeating a boxing legend in Wladimir are special moments, but for me nothing will ever match standing on the podium in London with the gold medal around my neck,” he said.

That’s good to hear from a level-headed young man who has turned his life around to become an overnight sensation, self-made superstar, national hero and front runner by a distance for Sports Personality of the Year.

After surviving that rollercoaster ride with Klitschko before a 90,000 crowd at Wembley Staduium, and a record pay-per-view TV audience of 1.5 million paying some £30 million ($38.8 million/€35.6 million) to Sky Box Office, Joshua could rightly stake a claim to be the most exciting heavyweight in the world.

He certainly has that world at his fists.

Now Box Office fights with Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and perhaps even Klitschko again (though I hope the brave and dignified Wladimir will heed big brother Vitali’s advice to retire) await down the line but the 27-year-old has bigger plans with pushing not only boxing's but the whole of sport's boundaries now firmly in his sights.

Yet, fabulous as the night and the fight was, we must not lose sight of the fact that Joshua is still a ring rookie.

Previous concerns about his durability certainly proved unfounded as he also demonstrated exceptional heart and resilience to avoid defeat after swallowing that Klitschko right hand and to fight on into the 11th round, where a devastating uppercut set up his victory.

He has, however, still got some way to go before he can call himself the best, despite what a posse of pundits are saying.

In fairness to Big Josh, he is pretty rational in his public pronouncements. Those bewitched cheerleaders around him are not quite so circumspect.

The flaws that exist in Joshua’s game were, on occasions, brutally exposed by the 41-year-old Klitschko.

That Joshua found the capacity to ride out the storm and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat is to his enormous credit, a little perspective is required.

Klitschko, remember - albeit with a lengthy delay not of his making - came into the fight off the back of another defeat that occurred in his own adopted back yard against Tyson Fury.

Tyson took the ageing warrior to school on that night in Dusseldorf, Germany. Klitschko could barely lay a glove on Fury, but he had no such problems against the now IBF and WBA champion, a far easier target.

It is fortunate for Joshua that Klitschko did not really have it left in him to go for the jugular when he put him down. If he had, we would be reflecting on a first professional defeat.

Clearly there are parts of Joshua's game that make him vulnerable. He remains very much a work in progress, so we shouldn't get too carried away just yet.

To talk about him like he is Muhammad Ali reincarnated is nonsense.

Yes, there are similarities. He is handsome, personable and has quick, hurtful hands, plus the gift of the gab well as the jab.

But Ali was more supple and less predictable - a one-off. Joshua must be his own man and has some way to go before he can be bracketed with "The Greatest".

For all Klitschko's qualities, Joshua didn’t beat a Liston, Frazier or Foreman, but a once-formidable opponent with great heart, but ageing legs whose best days were behind him.

So while it is admirable what Joshua has achieved up to now, until he fights the currently suspended Fury, who faces an investigation hearing by UK Sport into drugs allegations on May 8, or rival title holders Deontay Wilder or Joseph Parker, bestowing such lavish plaudits on him seems a tad premature.

As does the promotional prediction that he is set to become the first billionaire boxer.

It is more fanciful than feasible. Oscar De La Hoya, a 10-time world champion now a successful promoter, is estimated by Forbes to have earned around £405m throughout his career while Mike Tyson's £544m includes not only his boxing earnings but also appearances in WWE wrestling and a number of Hollywood films.

The Money Man himself, Floyd Mayweather Jnr, the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of his generation and star of some of the highest-grossing fights in history, is estimated to have made just over £600m in his career, by far boxing's premier money-spinner. So Joshua has some way to go to match his sport's top earners.

Indeed, by Forbes' reckoning, only three sportsmen ever have reached that figure: Michael Jordan, whose basketball earnings are supplemented by an ongoing deal with Nike, Tiger Woods, and fellow former golfing  great Arnold Palmer.

But good luck to Joshua. At least, unlike one of his great Olympic forebears, the late Jesse Owens, he won’t have to cash in an Olympic gold medal to secure his future.

Right now he is deservedly sport’s man-of-the-moment, a respectful and appetising role model for a sport that, like himself, has climbed off the canvas to win public affection. Long may it last.